***** ALCHEMY DOCUMENTATION ******
************************************
----------------------------------------
1. Hardware and system requirements
2. Important note
3. How to install Alchemy
4. How to play Alchemy
5. List of keystrokes
6. How to customize Alchemy
7. Commandline arguments
8. Trouble Shooting
9. Some more hints...
10. Credits
11. How to contact us
----------------------------------------
1) HARDWARE AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
=====================================
Requirements:
* An IBM compatible PC with a functioning DOS or Windows 95 on it.
* A VGA compatible graphics card and a colour monitor.
* A mouse with a DOS or Win31 / Win95 mouse driver.
* About one MB free storage on your hard disk.
Optionally you can run Alchemy on Linux / Unix from dosemu, if you
set it up correctly. There is some special help available for this.
2) IMPORTANT NOTE
===================
You are using this program on your own risk! We are not responsible for
any sort of damage this software does to you, to your computer, to your
family or anything else!
Secondly: Don't try anything you find or learn in this game!
For example if you start putting aliens into your freezer - just
remember: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF THAT DAMAGES YOUR FREEZER, NOR
IF THAT CAUSES AN INTERSTELLAR WAR OR MAKES YOUR FAMILY LEAVE YOU!!!
3) HOW TO INSTALL ALCHEMY
===========================
Create a directory on your DOS drive. If you downloaded the game from the
internet, unpack the zip file into the new directory. (If you have ALCHEMY
on a floppy disk, just copy its contents.)
You should then be able to start up the game by typing "ALCHEMY" on the
DOS command prompt and hit RETURN.
If that doesn't work:
1) Make sure you have copied ALL the files from the zip or floppy disk.
2) Make sure your working directory is the one you installed ALCHEMY in.
3) Make sure you have enough RAM (DOS memory, no EMS or XMS are required)
If it still doesn't work, refer to the "Trouble shooting" section below!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alchemy has a language detection function: on startup Alchemy automagically
selects and loads the ALC file that matches the language of your operating
system. In order to let this function work properly, make sure that you
have a line in your CONFIG.SYS file to set the country code, e.g.:
COUNTRY=44,850,C:\DOS\country.sys (for United Kingdom)
or something similar.
COUNTRY=49... (for Germany)
COUNTRY=33... (for France)
Consult your DOS manual if you want to know more about this.
4) HOW TO PLAY ALCHEMY
========================
The best thing is if you figure out yourself what you have to do.
Basically, your task is to find out as much as possible about the simulated
world and to build up a civilization.
When you start the program, you will find symbols (water, fire, air and
earth) on the screen. With your mouse you should then be able to perform
reactions by dragging the symbols around and dropping them on other symbols.
If you worked that out, you can start exploring and researching...
NOTE:
* Not every combination of elements is possible - !
* Sometimes you need more than two substances to initiate a reaction!
* In many cases there are several ways of creating a certain substance.
FURTHER HINTS:
* You can move multiple symbols at a time: Use the right mouse button
to mark a rectangular area on your screen, click inside this rectangle
with the left button and then move it.
* If you can't identify a symbol on the screen, move your mouse cursor
on the symbol and press [i] on your keyboard. If you have a
three-button-mouse (and an apropriate driver), you can also use the
middle button.
* Some substances can be activated just by clicking on them.
5) LIST OF KEYSTROKES
=======================
Here is a list of keystrokes:
[F1] Display help screen
[F2] Save game
[F3] Load game
[F5] Display list of discoveries
[F6] Next things to discover...
[O] Sort symbols on the screen
[R] Shuffle the symbols on the screen
[L] Language menu
[I] Identify substance
[SPACE] Pause / Show percentage
[ESC] Exit
6) HOW TO CUSTOMIZE ALCHEMY
=============================
To customize The Alchemy Game, create a text file called "ALCHEMY.INI"
(the name is important) in your ALCHEMY directory.
Settings declared in this file will be loaded on startup.
SYNTAX:
Every line of the file may contain an identifier (= the setting you wish
to change), an "EQUAL" symbol and a value for the identifier.
E.g.: myfunction=off
Lines starting with a "#" character will be ignored. (use that for
comments!)
List of identifiers:
Identifier Possible values Description
---------- --------------- -----------
INTRO ON, OFF if "off" then the intro screen will
be skipped.
LOGO ! ON, OFF if "on" then you will see a logo
logo on startup - good for presen-
tations :-)
SAVEGAME ON, OFF if "off" then users are not allowed to
save their games
WAITFORKEY ON, OFF Wait for a keystroke before startup.
(equivalent to parameter "/K" on the
command line)
XMOUSE ON, OFF for UNIX freaks! :-)
LNGFILE myfile.alc Use "myfile.alc" as default language
file.
ERRORCHECK ON, OFF If "off", Alchemy will NOT abort if
an error occurs, e.g. if no mouse
driver or language file was found.
FORCEMOUSE ! ON, OFF fixes a bug caused by the internal
mouse driver from earlier versions of
dosemu.
NOTE: The options marked with a "!" MIGHT not work in your specific version
of Alchemy (e.g. the logo function). If in doubt, check with "alchemy -v".
7) COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
===========================
You can use the following command line parameters:
/V Display version information and quit (same as "/version")
/K Wait for key before game starts (useful if you want to read
the startup messages)
/S Use other settingsfile than local "ALCHEMY.INI" -
e.g. "/Smysettin.dat" or "/SA:\alchemy.ini". This function is
useful if you want to have different configurations for different
groups of users.
/L Call the language menu on startup
/U Start automagic UPDATE function: This option requires a drive
letter and / or directory specification. E.g.: "/UA:"
or "/UC:\UPDATE\ALC". This function will not work with zipped
updates.
/X Set X-like mouse cursors for the Unix freaks :-)
/team Info about The ALCHEMY Team!
/version Print version information
/forcemouse Special switch for a bug in some old versions of dosemu
Additionally you can specify your preferred language file (*.alc) on
startup by mentioning the filename on the command line, e.g.
"alchemy xfr.alc" forces Alchemy to use the language file "xfr.alc".
8) TROUBLE SHOOTING
=====================
If Alchemy doesn't start, look out for error messages and try to find
them in the list below:
PROBLEM HOW TO FIX IT
------------------------- -------------------------------------------
No language file found. A) make sure the language files (*.ALC)
are in the same directory as ALCHEMY.EXE
and you are in this directory when you
start up the game
B) Maybe your language files don't match the
version of the executable (alchemy.exe).
Try passing a "!" on the command line, e.g.
"alchemy !"
C) You might have write-protected your
hard drive or floppy disk!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Alchemy loads a language Make sure your COUNTRY environment variable
file on startup, but not (in config.sys) is set to a sane value.
the one I want! If this is already the case or if you WANT to
start up with a language file that differs
from your COUNTRY code, proceed with one of
the steps below:
A) Try passing the name of the language file
on the command line, e.g.
"ALCHEMY myfile.alc"
B) You can specify the default language file
in your ALCHEMY.INI (the settings file).
Drop a line like "LNGFILE=xxx.alc".
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
One of the language files The language file you want is either damaged
does not appear in the or belongs to an older or newer version of
list, but I am certain it Alchemy. On the command line, try passing an
is in the correct exclamation mark "!" (without the quotes)
directory! Why is this and then the name of your file, e.g.
and what can I do? "ALCHEMY ! myfile.alc".
In the language menu, press [h] for "hidden
entries".
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Graphics adaptor not ini- Make sure the device driver file "egavga.bgi"
tialized. is present in the directory.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No mouse driver found. You probably didn't install a mouse driver:
Install one, or, if you don't have a mouse
driver for DOS, start ALCHEMY from within
Windows.
If you don't have Windows and you verified
that there IS a mouse driver installed and it
works fine with other DOS applications, but NOT
with ALCHEMY (that never happended yet!) - give
up or install a different one!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Runtime error xxx Email us the detailed error message and
describe what exactly you were doing.
If we can fix the problem, we'll send you a
free update. (Mention your exact name!)
------------------------- -------------------------------------------
9) SOME MORE HINTS...
==========================
* Every substance you discover can be destroyed or turned into something
different - (There is one exeption in the field of nuclear power).
* Try to explore in a well balanced way! That means, do not concentrate
your research on only one area (animal, plants, metals or whatever) -
otherwise you would in most cases end up with an unbalanced number
of elements (too much or too little of an important substance).
* There are MANY shortcuts to central reactions, i.e. there are some tricks
on getting things faster or in larger quantities! (Sometimes this
requires more advanced technology)
* If you discovered 100% of the game, there may still be things left
you haven't found! (Shortcuts, intermediate stages and some advanced
machines are in this category.)
10) CREDITS
======================
This program would not have been possible without the help and contribution
of many people, including:
Martin Hunt (UK) - Artwork
Heiner Steinruecken (Germany) - ideas, reactions and hours of beta testing
Thomas Gerbaud (France) - French translation
Seung Kok Yin (Hong Kong) - Chinese translation
Christian Steinruecken - Main idea, concept and programming
Lynn Shore - reactions for the development of life
Ian Ward - phlogiston theory + chemistry
Michelle Martin - German translation of help files
Merilynn Starr - parts of the (incomplete) Spanish translation
and many others too important to mention.
11) HOW TO CONTACT US
======================
If you have questions, or if you (for whatsoever reason) would like to
contact us, please send email to:
alchemy@steinruecken.de
- - - - - - - - - -
If you would like to contribute to our project, don't hesitate to email
us (we don't bite :-). There are still many important jobs to be done:
A. Translate the names of the substances to different languages. So far
we have English, German and French, but we still need more.
We'd like to have translations in Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Russian
or any other language. This is not too much work (about 200 - 300 words)
PLEASE, if you can help, email us!
B. Bring this game to other platforms (especially Linux and Windows!)
C. Design, draw or render new ICONS for this game (we will send you a
list of things that desperately need drawing)
D. Translate the intro screen and/or design new ones!
E. Write better documentation and/or translate it to other languages.
If you contribute, you will be part of The Alchemy Team: You'll be
mentioned in the credits, have free pre-releases and ALPHA versions,
and (if you want) mails with news on current progress and problems, and
most of all you will have our sympathy!
We are looking forward to your comments, suggestions, errors or critizism!
Have a lot of fun with the game,
** The ALCHEMY Team **
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